Proverbs 7: 2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
When God commands “Live!” we know He means more than survive, more than just exist. And when God promises “You will Live!” we know He means more than just staying alive a little longer. We innately know what God means by life: He means a full, rich, abundant, and satisfying life, a life that has meaning and purpose. He says, “Your life matters. You are important to me.” Life that is living is really alive because it is God’s life, and that life is eternal. It is meant to be ever-increasing love and joy and peace and hope, and it never ends.
We do not naturally enjoy this life as God designed it to be because sin entered the earth, and sin brings death, the end of living. But God’s love doesn’t stop: He sent the Son to enter earthly life to forgive sin, deliver from death, and restore The Life that God originally intended.
This is the conditional promise of the Law: “Keep my commandments, and live.” If you keep my commandments perfectly, then you will live eternally. The problem is: we don’t, we can’t, and we won’t keep the commandments. The commandment is good; but I am not. Therefore, we do not have the promise. We shall die, and not live. Without Jesus there is no promise of life, only a fearful awareness of death.
So Jesus kept the commandments for us, paid the penalty of death for us, and rose to give us God’s righteousness and God’s life. Now the Gospel is an unconditional promise for us “You will live, today and forever.” Apply the Gospel to your life by faith now and enjoy life forever. The Gospel gives the power to keep and protect the Word as you would the pupil of your eye. It is that precious.